Disclaimer:
I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...
Mischief Managed Damn It!
Title: Harry Potter and The Spell Craft System (Working Title)
Posted Date: November 2nd 2019
Tags: Competent Harry Potter, Isekai Type Potter (Potter going to another world), Greater Good Dumbledore
"Now that we are all well-fed from our wonderful feast, it is my pleasure to announce that the goblet is almost ready to make its decision." Excited whispering erupted in the Great Hall of Hogwarts from the students sitting at four long tables that stretched from one end to the other before a hand raised by an old wizard at the front of the hall where the staff table was situated prompted their immediate silence. With a smile, one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore lowered his hand and continued to address them as he came up beside a giant goblet with blue flames adorning the rim, giving it a mystical atmosphere in the hall.
"I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them please to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go through into the next chamber" - he indicated the door behind the staff table - "where they will be receiving their first instructions." Dumbledore gave a sweep of his wand and all the lights, save for those in the jack-lanterns hovering in the air, went out silently, creating an eerie quality to the room that merely increased the anticipation of the students as they sat impatiently for the names to be drawn. Dumbledore simply crossed his hands and looked to the goblet, all while mentally preparing for the plan he had set for this night and thinking about all that had passed for the last fifteen years.
When the war was going bad for the Ministry and the Order of the Phoenix, Albus was at his wit's end to end the fight with Voldemort aka Tom Riddle. He had plenty of people from inside and out of the Order telling him to stop holding back and just take the Death Eaters down with lethal force, but he resisted their words for the most, reluctantly allowing a couple of his agents to do so against his will when there was honestly no choice. He wanted to give them a chance to be redeemed, after all there were plenty who were enamored with the promise of power only to be revolted by the true actions and stuck in the ranks of the Death Eaters. There were also a few who were useful for him to keep track of their movements so that he could direct his group to save lives, or if needed to sacrifice to attain victory or for his plans.
But the main reason that he held back was two-fold. The first reason was because he could not risk losing his hold of the Elder Wand to Tom, he was already gaining strength from his dark rituals and his knowledge of the dark arts. Albus needed the extra edge to fight him face-to-face and could not risk losing the allegiance of the wand to Tom, his Death Eaters, his Order, or Merlin forbid, some whining brat who would not understand the severity of it and bragged about it for all to hear.
The second reason was perhaps just as selfish if not more so than the first and certainly a lot more insidious if he had to admit to himself. He wanted Tom and his Death Eaters to eradicate all the houses that did not conform to his ideals of the Greater Good and to eliminate the few opposing members of his Order to ensure total compliance and to prepare for other ideas in mind. Through the use of his spy Severus Snape, Albus had already removed the Bones couple, the McKinnons and other selected people via bad information and ambushes conducted by Death Eaters. Dumbledore also wanted Tom to be feared so much that when once he finally defeated the dark wizard, his name would be forever immortalized as the greatest wizard since Merlin. His takedown of his former brother-in-blood and lover had been perfect, but he knew that plenty had been chomping on his tails for his power and ideas. If he could take down Tom, he would be unstoppable!
... At least, that would have been the case if not a few complications.
Tom had gone a lot further into the war than anticipated and was gaining a lot of ground with his Death Eaters, making good use of the giants, trolls and Dementors at his disposal. His wonton destruction was creating more problems that saw the rise of Barty Crouch's ruthlessness with his authorization of the Unforgivable Curses to fight on even grounds with the Death Eaters. Albus had attempted to reason with the man but got rebuffed for his 'weakness' so he had to counteract with his order to take down the Death Eaters without killing them.
The other reason was more related to the fates deciding that he was not the one to take Tom down. Albus still remembered the evening he conducted his interview with Sybill Trelawney for the role of Divination Professor. He was mentally thinking about the rerouting of the funds from the soon to be removed course when Sybill gotten into a trance and gave a genuine prophecy on the spot. Albus admitted to being a little dumbfounded by it that he missed getting spied on until his brother came along to throw a younger Severus Snape who at that point was already in Voldemort's camp and was trying to be recognized in the Inner Circle.
Albus was initially skeptical about the timing, after all he was about to dismiss her after a disastrous interview, but when he went to check with the Unspeakables from the Department of Mysteries, it was shocking to know that it was authenticated to be true. There was however the question of whom the chosen one would be, and privately to himself, who was the dark lord mentioned in the prophecy. Despite the warnings by the Unspeakable, the old wizard steadfastly ignored them and assured himself that it had to be Tom who was the dark lord, not Albus, and went about trying to find the child that would lead him to victory.
He ended up having two candidates in the form of the newborns by the Potters and the Longbottoms.
Sounds of a roaring flame broke his thoughts and drew his attention to the Goblet of Fire as it began to burn brighter in the darkened room. Albus raised his hand in time for the flames to turn a deep crimson red and a scrap of burnt parchment to be pushed out of it for Albus to grab it in mid-air.
"The champion for Durmstrang... Victor Krum!" The sounds of applause filled the Great Hall of Hogwarts as the grumpy looking Bulgarian stood up from his seat and made his way to the chambers at the side, with the headmaster of said academy dressed in thick fur shouting his congratulations to him. Albus politely clapped along with the others as he waited for the next parchment to call forth the champion for Beauxbatons and his thoughts continued from where it ended.
After determining the two candidates, Albus kept an eye on the two to see which would be the one for Tom to fight and whom Albus would claim as his chosen player. It was a tough pick as both seemed to be somewhat docile, and their parents were not making it easy. Well at least the parents and grand matriarch of the Longbottom were stubborn; when it came to the Potters, it would be Lily Potter nee Evans that was the biggest obstacle. Unlike James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, she was someone who refused to trust him solely on his word and often looked around for information to show otherwise. She never did trust him that much during her time in Hogwarts, especially regarding the punishments of the purebloods who picked on her and others. She also believed that a heavier hand was needed with the Death Eaters so that no more innocents had to be sacrificed, something that was a major contention between her and a few of the Order members including her husband. Alastor Moody and a few hardened members were on her side though and would often back her up particularly after a hard raid that saw the bodies of children on the ground, citing that a harder punishment was required to stop such matters from happening.
Perhaps it was a little vindictive of him, but Albus decided that it had to be the Potters that would be chosen for the task. Mostly it was because he had seen how the young boy was already displaying great feats of wandless magic that often left the walls stuck in a certain color or objects transfigured almost permanently until the adults could overpower the magic to cancel it out. Another was the thinking pattern of Tom; he would believe that as a fellow half-blood, he would pose the greater challenge and there was something poetic that a half-blood orphan would take down another who was loved by family.
And the last bit was Albus could not stand that muggleborn woman. She kept on undermining his orders and at times went behind his back just so she could protect Harry. Not to mention with Alice Longbottom double-teaming with her, it was difficult to gain control of the two families. Lily Potter must go for the Greater Good of his plan.
It did not take much on his end to do it, the traitorous Peter Pettigrew practically did the work for him as Tom was targeting the Potters aggressively, slowly drawing their will to fight away like blood from their veins. With a quick suggestion to Sirius, they moved the position of Secret Keeper to Pettigrew and giving Albus the position of witness alongside Sirius and Alice. After which he made sure to cut off communications from both sides to drive the families to despair so as to make sure they could only rely on him.
Then came Halloween, the night Tom Riddle killed the Potters and in turn vanquished by young Harry. He had monitors that were checking on them so he could tell Hagrid when to find them and bring Harry to him. When they met at Privet Drive Little Whinging where his muggle blood relatives were staying, Albus had to sigh as he laid eyes on the now famous scar on young Harry's forehead. He could practically taste the dark miasma issuing from it and knew that this was the mark prophesized, that meant the boy was going to fight the dark lord in the future. The only issue was that he needed to be there to ensure he could guide the boy to his ultimate destiny. That was the reason why he ignored the will which stipulated that Harry was not to be raised with Lily's sister Petunia Dursley nee Evans, and ignored the warnings given by Minerva. The boy must look to Albus for guidance to ensure that total victory could be obtained.
After that, it was a small matter of getting Sirius out of the way by allowing Barty Crouch to send him to Azkaban without a trial, not a hard thing to do since Barty hated all the dark families with a passion. Alice Longbottom getting attacked by the Lestranges and Crouch Junior was a bonus of sorts as this allowed him to seal the will and to declare himself magical guardian while the chaos around Crouch would prevent anyone from looking too closely. He could not access the Potter accounts because of Lily adding in extra provisions to them, but at the least he could access some of the gold from the trust vault set up. Then it became a waiting game for Harry to enter the magical world again.
At least, it should have been the case.
Albus admitted to being busy for the first few months to reassure the populace and his international contacts that the war was currently over, and to seek aid for much of the damages. When he finally came back to his office to check on the child, his heart practically stopped when he realized none of his instruments were working. He may have blasted parts of the school's wards to shreds when he apparated to the house and banged on the door to get the residents and find out what happened to the child, only to realize they never had the child to begin with.
A quick look into their minds revealed the scene where they were arguing about the child and when the heavyset man yelled that he would not have the child as his final word, the basket containing the child vanished in a bright burst of light. It would seem that while Petunia was the blood relation, magic had recognized Vernon's authority as the head of house and removed Harry accordingly, and in so doing removed him as the key piece of his plans.
This was not good to Albus's plans at all.
Despite Albus's attempts to cover up the truth, the goblins evidently had their own method of checking and found out about Harry missing and the funds being misappropriated. They had made a fair bit of noise to get the money and heirlooms back, and that led to the point where Rita Skeeter would have picked up on it, and in the year when Harry would have been 5 years old, released the news of his disappearance, his misplaced money and making sure to point the finger at Albus.
Pandemonium, that was the best way of describing the reactions of the populace.
In summary, he had lost a fair bit of political power, dismissed from the ICW, currently on probation from the Wizengamot, banned from Gringotts and the fair bit of respect from the populace. The dark families were on one hand gleeful for the chance to bring him down or reduce his influence, but at the same time they were disturbed at his handling of an heir to one of the oldest families in Britain. The 'light' families were appalled at the handling and the fact he tried to take gold away from a child too young to remember his parents. The neutrals were the most silent in words but the most damning in actions as they demanded that he can't be allowed to have any guardianship over children and to be reviewed for the next few years. It was only with plenty of favors called in and perhaps a touch of blackmail that Albus hung on to his position of headmaster and even then, it was a close deal.
All in all, it was not a good time for Albus, and it got worse when the year 1991 came about, the year Harry Potter was supposed to attend. The staff with the exception of Severus had jammed themselves into the room where the invitations were written for the prospective students, hoping to get an address or some indication that the boy was alive and able to come to Hogwarts. To their sheer disappointment the quill skipped Harry's name altogether and went on to write the next addressee, enforcing the image that Harry was still missing. It was then driven home on the night of the sorting where his name was called out by a teary-eyed Minerva who was praying that he was perhaps late to the school. No one stepped forward that night, and the fears of all were confirmed.
Harry did not come to Hogwarts that year. He was still missing to them all.
And as if it were not bad enough, the troubles that came merely enforced Albus's desires to find the boy at all costs.
The sounds of the roaring fire prompted him to lift his arm to catch the parchment automatically and bring it to his eyes to call out the name.
"The champion for Beauxbatons... Fleur Delacour!" The sounds of applause sounded the halls again as the beautiful Veela from France rose from her seat elegantly and made her way to the chambers, ignoring the wolf-whistles from the hormonal males and the sobbing of some of her female classmates. Silence came again and there was now a tension in the hall coming from the students of Hogwarts as they looked to the goblet with an intense glare as though they could scare the goblet into giving out the name of the Hogwarts representative faster. Albus merely focused on his thoughts as he waited for the next name. Not an easy task as it was regarding his recent failures.
In the year that Harry Potter was supposed to be in his castle, Albus had prepared for traps to see proof that Tom had survived his encounter and to test Harry if he had grown the way he had intended for him. With his non-appearance, Albus was forced to use Neville Longbottom to see if he had anything to go for him. Sadly, it was a resounding no; the boy was suffering more confidence issues due to the overbearing nature of Augusta and his skills were barely scrapping the cauldron besides Herbology, he was certainly not giving about good first impressions as a Gryffindor or as Albus's possible backup. That year also saw a troll entering the school and almost killing a muggleborn witch named Hermione Granger who had wanted to leave because of the bullying she had experienced from Gryffindor since her arrival, but due to the bylaws stating that she would need an education or risk losing her magic and memories, she instead demanded a resorting that saw her become a Ravenclaw. Unicorns were found killed with their blood drained and the security was breached a few times, it was only thanks to the fact that he was using a fake stone inside the Mirror of Erised that helped Albus keep Tom long enough to confirm his existence. This was the proof that he had survived, now he needed to know the method and the whereabouts of his chosen weapon.
The year 1992 was also a disaster with the opening of the elusive Chamber of Secrets made by from Salazar Slytherin. Petrified students, murdered roosters and warning left on walls in blood set the scene for terrified muggleborns, half-bloods and others who were pro-muggle. It did not help matters with Lucius Malfoy using his forked tongue to first get Hagrid into Azkaban and later push Albus out of the headmaster's seat. That at least did not last long when word came of Daphne Greengrass, Michael Corner and Hannah Abbot getting petrified, and Ginevra Molly Weasley having been taken by the monster, prompting the Ministry to finally send some Aurors to investigate the matter. It was somewhat disheartening seeing a fair number of students giving him and the staff the stink-eye because action was only taken after a pure-blood was petrified or taken. While they had found her, the chamber and the cursed diary used to possess her, they never found the Basilisk that was attacking the students, knowledge of it being the courtesy of Miss Granger who was petrified at the library while finding clues to the attacks. It was small comfort for Albus to know that the diary was a horcrux that once contained a portion of Tom's soul, at least he now had proof that this was the method he used to survive the night.
An even more tragic fate came when Healers checked the girl and found that she had barely managed to survive her ordeal at the cost of her magic taken away, rendering her just barely a squib. The Healers stated that she could eventually get back her magic but it would be years, not to mention the amount of dark taint on her from the possession got them worried that she would still be under the influence. It was a distraught Arthur and Molly who came to withdraw her from Hogwarts and take her back home, with their last words cursing Albus for his inaction and no longer supporting him. Albus admitted to himself that he was not too concerned about that; what truly worried him greatly was the diary clearly held a piece of Tom's soul but now bared minimum traces with no signs of damage, and based on Ginerva's statement of Tom coming out of the pages, that could mean that one copy of Voldemort was out and about in a younger and stronger body.
The year 1993 saw the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban, a feat that many had thought impossible and feared for their lives. The guard's explanations of hearing the Black repeating "He's at Hogwarts." made the Minister believe that the criminal was delusional into believing that Harry Potter was in Hogwarts and sent Dementors to the academy to protect the students. Albus decided to hire Remus Lupin for the DADA position with the side duty of tracking Sirius Black since he would know his habits well, and that he really could not afford to face the man at the moment.
That year was considered the most miserable of Hogwarts for the past century; students falling ill or getting depressed by the mere presence of Dementors, cold and wet weather throughout the year and most serious of the lot, at least five students were almost kissed by the deadly guards. OWLs and NEWTs were at an all-time low due to disruptions caused by the creatures. Towards the end of the year, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom had encountered Sirius Black and somehow found Peter Pettigrew out of nowhere, creating a situation where the two children managed to convince the escapee that having Peter alive would serve his situation better. They almost lost control of the situation with the appearance of Severus, Remus and the Dementors all in one spot, but the two were able to get Peter to the Great Hall where one Amelia Bones was contacted early on to bring them in. Within the month, Peter Pettigrew and Barty Crouch were summarily sentenced to Azkaban with the added twist of finding one Crouch Junior under the Imperius Curse in his home and subsequently given the Dementor's Kiss, while Sirius Black was found innocent and cleared of charges.
And then Sirius Black found out about Harry's disappearance.
To put it nicely, every student in Hogwarts fled the Great Hall when Sirius Black slammed the doors open, stomped his way over to the staff table and proceeded to unload both wands at Albus, yelling at the old wizard's incompetence and his theft of the vaults, all while mindlessly blocking stunning and body binding curses sent by the staff. After a tirade that lasted a full twenty minutes without leaving the Great Hall, Sirius went straight back to Gringotts where he made sure the Potter vaults and properties were properly taken care of before setting forth to find clues on his whereabouts, assisted by Remus who had to quit due to Severus letting out his secret of being a werewolf.
Then came the disaster of the Quidditch World Cup of 1994. What should have been a joyous event was marred by the attack of the Death Eaters and later the reappearance of Voldemort's Dark Mark. Tensions were high and the Ministry was not being very effective, especially with the recent news of Peter having escaped his confinement roughly a week before the start of the year. The populace was not pacified by the Ministry's weak assurances and it would feel that the tournament may be their final shot of getting some positive publicity.
Albus almost felt pity for them for what he was going to give them.
"Finally, the champion for Hogwarts is... Cedric Diggory!" The Great Hall seemed to shake from the screams and cheers of the student population as the aforementioned young man rose from his place and made his way to the chambers. Albus fixed a smile on his face and turned to the students while counting down the eventual twist to the evening.
"Excellent! Now we have our three champions for the tournament. I am sure I can count on all of you, including those from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, to give your champions every ounce of support you can muster. By helping to cheer them on you will be able to contribute to the tournament and..."
The sounds of roaring fire stopped his speech and drew everyone's attention to the goblet that started to change the color of its flames again, then with a big burst of flame it spit out another burnt piece of parchment that Albus caught with his hand and brought it to his eyes. Inwardly he sighed with relief and anticipation; one of the known facts of the goblet was no one could enter the name of a dead person, so any name given out by the goblet would indicate the person was alive. And considering that he used the subject's blood for this, it was both assuring him that the subject is alive and reinforcing the contract to prepare for the next part of the plan.
"Harry Potter."
The silence that came was stifling as it took time for the populace to absorb the words into their minds. Then like a damn breaking, people started talking to one another, many carrying expressions of disbelief, suspicions and above all, hope that their savior would return. By the staff table reactions were mixed. Many were in denial that the name was brought out of the goblet, Hagrid was practically shaking in his chair with nervousness and joy that the boy was still alive, Severus was scowling heavier than usual while Minerva was looking at Albus with narrowed eyes, prompting the old wizard to sigh mentally. She had lost a fair bit of confidence in him when she found out about Harry's disappearance and the past couple of years merely destroyed the remainder when Harry did not step into Hogwarts. No doubt she was already suspecting him for this, but she could not stop it without risking the boy's magic.
Now to start the second part.
Albus raised his wand and fired off a cannon shot to silence the students and grabbed their attention. "It would seem that someone has consider this to be a joke to submit his name. I will ask that the person who did this step forward and you would not be punished too severely." No one moved as he would know, but he kept the act of looking around the hall with a serious expression. "Very well then, the fact that no one comes forward means I must consider that no one did this. In that case..." He turned to face the goblet and placed a hand on the goblet.
"Harry Potter has been chosen to take part in the tournament. By the magic of the Goblet, we require him to appear before us to attend it." In response, the goblet's flames flared all the way to the ceiling, its color changing from a deep crimson to an eerie green to a deep ocean blue and to a deadly black, its power seeming to challenge the protections of Hogwarts as Albus could feel the wards straining to contain the goblet's summoning power. Then something shifted and the flames twisted upon itself and hovered above the space between the tables of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The power of the goblet increased and the students were starting to move away from the area out of fear that something could go wrong, but as the one who activated the goblet feature, Albus could tell that the goblet had found the one he had been seeking and was retrieving him back.
He had gone too far to be stopped.
Harry Potter will be found and brought back to him.
Voldemort will be vanquished, with or without the cooperation of Harry Potter.
For the Greater Good, Harry Potter will be under his guidance to ensure Britain could be saved.
The flames gave one final roar before something came out of the flames and crashed into the ground, scattering dust and debris around the area. As the dust started to settle to reveal a shape, Albus could only think of one thing.
Let the games begin.